Community Update – January 22, 2018

Hey everyone, thanks for the discussions regarding the proposed changes. We hear your feedback and want to make the following changes for the next balance update.

As we mentioned in our last community update, the Auto Turret will be back on the Raven replacing the Repair Drone ability. However, we received feedback that Auto Turret harass was a bit difficult to interact with due to the Raven’s ability to deploy turrets and promptly leave. Thus, we have decided to lower the Auto Turret’s cast range from 3 to 1, making the Raven user commit more in order to pull off worker harassment. With this change, the effective range of the Auto Turret becomes 7 (1 Cast Range + 6 Attack Range), meaning that well-placed Queens (8 Range) and static defenses (7 Range) will be more threatening to harassing Ravens.

Next, the Disruptor’s Purification Nova ability was becoming difficult to use with its initial charge-up time before launch. We are making a change to the Purification Nova ability and it will no longer need to charge up before firing. Instead, this charge-up time will only exist if the Disruptor drops from a transport, increasing the reaction time for players fighting against Disruptor drops.Also, we were alerted by a community post this week that High Templars are currently able to cast Feedback on Shield Batteries. In order to make the Feedback ability more consistent with other structures with energy, players will no longer be able to cast Feedback on Shield Batteries.

Lastly, there are several events and tournaments coming up so we want to try and give players as much time to practice as possible. Therefore, we will make the balance changes available for testing in the “Balance Test Mod” extension mod on January 23rd, along with the start of 2018 Season 1 Ladder. For next seasons 1v1 map pool, it will be:

Abiogenesis LE

Backwater LE

Acid Plant LE

Eastwatch LE

Blackpink LE

Neon Violet Square LE

Catalyst LE

As always, please feel free to let us know what you think on the forums or any other community sites. (Durations below are stated in faster games speed.)

Terran

Raven

Interference Matrix duration increased from 5.7 to 7.9.

Affected units will now display a status bar to show the duration of the ability.

Repair Drone ability removed.

Auto Turret ability added.

Auto Turret cast range reduced from 3 to 1.

Hi-Sec Auto Tracking increases the range of Auto-Turrets by +1 again.

Anti-Armor Missile

Anti-Armor Missile will no longer have a delay and will fly immediately towards the target.